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BIG PHYSICS, BIG QUESTIONS –

Review: The perils and pleasures of duty

By JOHN LEE

The Strands of A Life: The Science of DNA and the Art of Education by
Robert L. Sinsheimer, University of California Press, pp 320, $30, £23.50

Academic administration needs good scientists to provide informed opinion
for important decisions and to ensure that a wider perspective is transmitted
back to science faculties in common language. Yet it often succeeds in removing
some of the best scientists from their chosen field of scholarship and placing
them in an unfamiliar situation in which opportunism and political finesse
are assets as important as intellectual ability. This is what happened to
molecular biologist Robert Sinsheimer, whose autobiographical account, The
Strands of Life, is the latest in the Sloan Foundation’s Science Book Series.

By supporting the publication of the series, the foundation aims to
encourage public understanding of science. In contrast to most popular science
books, this series has emphasised scientific enterprise – the ways in which
science is actually done – rather than simply explain the results. Several
excellent contributions among the 17 volumes published include Advice to
a Young Scientist by Peter Medawar, The Youngest Science by Lewis Thomas
and What Mad Pursuit by Francis Crick.

The foundation was endowed by Alfred Sloan (1875-1966), president and
chairman of General Motors for more than a quarter of a century. Under Sloan,
General Motors overtook Ford in car sales in the 1920s, and eventually became
the largest business corporation in the world. Success brought huge financial
rewards to Sloan, who became a philanthropist. He endowed centres for advanced
engineering and management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the foundation that bears
his name.

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Sinsheimer has had an interesting career. After graduating from MIT
he was diverted into radar research for four years during the Second World
War, but then obtained his PhD in biophysics from MIT in 1948. His understandable
frustration at having to spend four years in a research endeavour alien
to his main interests remains palpable.

Faculty positions at Iowa State University and then the California Institute
if Technology (Caltech) followed. During this time he pursued studies of
the small bacteriophage fC, which was to play an important part in the unfolding
story of molecular biology. Sinsheimer was involved in the discovery of
circular DNA – a finding quite contrary to accepted dogma at the time –
and also in the first test-tube synthesis of infective DNA. This result
was widely reported in the media and produced an example of how easily public
misconceptions of science arise. Several reports called fC a ‘dwarf virus’,
referring to its small size. As a result, people suffering from dwarfism
wrote to Sinsheimer wondering if his research might lead to a cure. The
5386 nucleotides of fC became the first complete DNA to be sequenced (by
Fred Sanger’s laboratory in Cambridge in 1977) and Sinsheimer is justifiably
proud at having put fC on the map.

A successful scientist, Sinsheimer served on many committees and became
chairman of biology at Caltech. Then, in 1977, he became chancellor of the
University of California at Santa Cruz. It is clear that he took this position
somewhat naively, expecting to be able to continue his research. About half
the book is concerned with the political manoeuvring of the next ten years.
It makes salutary reading. Although Sinsheimer puts a brave face on the
experience and was clearly good at the job, I had the strong impression
that he wished he had stayed in the laboratory. His obvious delight at getting
back into the lab on retirement is evident.

This is an interesting and well-written book by an outstanding scientist
who followed the path to academic administration. Sinsheimer’s experiences
highlight an enduring dilemma. The premise of the Sloan Foundation series
is that an understanding of scientific enterprise brings with it insight
into the nature of scientific discoveries. This is just as true for scientists
as for nonscientists and this book contains much that both will want to
think about.